News/Commentary

‘Not even close’: Bill Melugin ‘coming in hot’ with fact check of Biden deportation claim

July 9, 2024 | | Print Article

Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin earned himself a Community Notes hat tip when he corrected the record in response to a claim by Reuters “DC-based” immigration reporter Ted Hesson.

Hesson took to X on Monday to declare, “Biden is now deporting more people than Trump.”

He added a spiffy graphic to make it look more official, but no journalist in America knows the illegal immigration crisis better than Melugin, who has spent countless days reporting from the border, often the only reporter chronicling what has turned out to be an invasion of 10 million-plus illegal immigrants under President Biden,

“No, he’s not. And it’s not close,” the Fox News reporter replied to Hesson. “FY’18-FY’20: 709,227 deportations. FY’21-FY’23: 273,768 deportations. That’s straight from ICE data. This article attempts to count ‘returns’ as deportations. They’re not. They’re bounce[d] back across the border to MX, then they can try again.”

Much of the media have happily reported that border crossings have “plunged” since Biden signed an executive order last month restricting asylum processing along the southern border after illegal crossings spiked — what they are not so quick to report is that the administration has been flying in hundreds of thousands of migrants at U.S. taxpayer expense, as part of the controversial “CHNV” mass parole program, as Melugin reported back in April.

On that note, Speaker Mike Johnson took to social media to point out that President Biden opposes a bill preventing noncitizens from voting in November.

“It should alarm every American citizen that the sitting President of the United States, who has opened our border to over 9 million illegals, just announced that he would veto our bill to prevent noncitizens from voting,” Johnson posted.


Here’s a quick sampling  of responses to the story, as seen on X:

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